New Teacher's Companion

A Study Guide for The New Teacher's Companion: Practical Wisdom for Succeeding in the Classroom

This Study Guide is designed to enhance your understanding of The New Teacher's Companion: Practical Wisdom for Succeeding in the Classroom, an ASCD book published in November 2009, by helping you make connections between the text and the classroom, school, or district in which you work. The author is a teacher with years of experience in the classroom and mentoring new teachers, so you're sure to find help for every step, at every hour of the day. Written by Gini Cunningham, this book offers practical information to new teachers as they prepare themselves and their classrooms for the first year of their teaching career.

You can use this Study Guide before or after you have read the book, or as you finish each chapter. If you have not read the book already, you may wish to scan this guide very quickly and highlight questions and instructions that are designed to prompt your thinking prior to your reading the text. The study questions provided are not meant to cover all aspects of the book but, rather, to address selected ideas we thought might warrant further reflection.

Most of the questions in this Study Guide are ones you can think about on your own. But you might also consider pairing with another colleague or a group of people who have read (or are reading) The New Teacher's Companion.

Chapter 1. Teaching—It's More than a Job, It's Magic

What are your personal and professional goals for this first year of teaching?

Think about your vision of a successful teacher. What are the components that make up a successful teacher? What can you do to help you reach your vision?

Think about ways you can replenish your personal energy and enthusiasm throughout the school year. Being a good teacher demands time and energy, but you need to find time for yourself. You may find it necessary to schedule time for yourself to exercise, meditate, or read a book. Do you have other replenishing ideas that work for you?

Chapter 2. You've Got the Job! Now Deal with the Business Details

Is it possible for every student to succeed? Define academic success. Is it the same for every student? Why or why not?

What are the characteristics of a colleague who can best support and sustain you during the first weeks and months of teaching? Think about the characteristics of people you trust. If you don't have a mentor assigned by your school, ask your principal to suggest a good role model and mentor.

Confidentiality is critical inside and outside your classroom. Who can you trust with your deepest worries without breaking rules of confidentiality?

Decide on at least three ways and times during the school year that you can communicate with parents about student learning. Mark your calendar with target dates for communication. Determine how to best accomplish this essential school-to-home connection in a positive, rewarding way.

Chapter 3. Standards, Curriculum, and Textbooks

Get a copy of the state and district academic standards for learning in your subject area. Examine what students should know before they reach your grade level, what they should master with you, and what knowledge and skills are essential for success when they move to the next grade. Discuss these learning goals with your colleagues for insight and suggestions.

Construct a lesson focused on one or two academic standards of learning in your subject area. Clarify the expectations. Determine the best teaching and learning methods to incorporate into the lesson.

Generate a list of what students must know and be able to do as a result of your instruction. Sort these into a logical, instructional sequence and put them on your calendar. Check throughout the year to see how you and your students are progressing. Note what went faster than expected, what needed modification, and what needed reteaching. You now have a useful assessment tool for yourself and a guide for future instruction.

Chapter 4. Classroom Management

Discuss with other new teachers as well as seasoned veterans their secrets to classroom management. Add their best strategies to your classroom management plan.

For some students on some days, rules seem inapplicable. Your students will be affected by a death in the family, fighting at home, or stress among peers. Discuss with your peers how to maintain a fair management plan while addressing the individual needs of students.

Chapter 5. Meaningful Rewards and Awards

Can you celebrate learning for every student while maintaining honesty and integrity within your awards? How can you do that?

Discuss intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. What works best for you? Why? Do you believe you can encourage students to gravitate toward intrinsic motivation? How?

How can you honor learning in the face of absenteeism, belligerence, or lack of cooperation? What can you do to help students catch up, keep up, and focus on learning?

Chapter 6. Procedures and Schedules for Flawless Classroom Operation

What classroom procedures will you need to make the school day flow? Brainstorm how each basic procedure can be handled in your well-organized classroom—and what supplies or materials you may need to make those procedures work (baskets, folders, hall passes).

Evaluate the material posted in your room. Does each item enhance learning, clarify meaning, and provide students with necessary tools for success? Sort your materials into two groups—essential information for the first day of school, and useful information that can be added later.

How do you plan to ensure that each student is accountable for learning every day?

Chapter 7. Lesson Plans and Unit Plans—the Basis for Instruction

Review the lesson plan template provided in chapter 8 or one approved by your school. Adapt one or both templates and design a lesson. Carefully note the components of an excellent lesson plan. Later, when you teach the lesson, note how the amount of time each phase actually requires so that you can adjust your future lessons to fit the time and pace of your class.

With your pacing guide for the year, note when and how often each standard is taught and reviewed. Look for theme, concept, and skill similarities. Decide how you can group these together into lessons that fit together under a thematic umbrella. Outline a unit of study for one of your subject area requirements.

What formal and informal evidence will you gather each day to ensure that your students are learning? How will you record all of this information? Can you use that information in your next lesson?

Chapter 8. Time Management

Bell-to-bell instruction means that every instructional minute is maximized. How will you ensure excellent use of classroom time? For example, how will you begin and end each class period?

Find a colleague to videotape a lesson while you are teaching. Evaluate your appearance, voice, and demeanor during you interactions with students, along with the level and variety of your questions, your movement around the classroom, and the degree to which your students are engaged in learning. Note strengths and areas that need work.

Chapter 9. Every Moment Counts: Strategies for Student Engagement

Student engagement is important to classroom management and student learning. Talk about different engagement strategies and select a few to use in your classroom over the next few weeks. Did your peers select different strategies? Talk about your choices. Share your successes and disappointments with these similar strategies to help each other improve.

Homework completion is often difficult for students. Brainstorm with your colleagues the value of homework, how to support your students in completing homework, and alternatives to homework and long assignments.

Chapter 10. Questions to Activate Thinking and Ignite Learning

Review the effective questioning techniques shown in Figure 10.1 on pp. 162–163. Select a topic, concept, or skill for an upcoming lesson. Design a question for each category using a suggested assessment type as your format. Compare your questions with those of your colleagues and fill in gaps for each other.After testing several questions and question types with your students, were you surprised by their responses? Are your assessments geared to find out what student know and understand and what they do not know and understand? Can you use the information gained through assessment to improve instruction? How?

Consider the various classroom assessments available. Make a list of the ones you use or intend to use in your classroom (see Figure 10.2, pp. 170–171 for a list). Place a checkmark by the assessments you have used this week; put a star by the assessments you have used this month. Consider the unmarked assessments for future use and evaluate the feedback you now have on assessment and determine how you choice of assessment affects student learning and academic success.

Portfolios whether formal or informal are an excellent way for students to recognize growth and for teachers to inform instruction. How do portfolios best fit into your classroom to support student learning and enlighten your teaching methods?

Chapter 11. Grading, Student Achievement, and Student Self-Evaluation

Consider your policies on homework, late work, and make-up work. Also consider the school's policies. How do your policies support student learning? Are they working for you or against you? Do they work for or against your students? If you need to, how can you adjust those policies?

How does student self-evaluation inform instruction? How can you work student self-assessment into your classroom routine?

Think about an assessment you've used in the last week. If possible, tally the scores, answers, and other information provided. If not, think about the assessment in general terms and determine the strength of your assessment, a weakness of the assessment, and how you will use the information with your students to follow up.

Chapter 12. Final Notes for Teaching Success

What are three things that you will include in planning next year that you were unaware of this year?